


The Chard Layer

by Tarlan



Category: Primeval: New World
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-05
Updated: 2014-04-05
Packaged: 2018-01-17 12:14:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1387237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stranded at the Temporal Junction after the anomaly collapsed, Evan is surprised to find Howard Kanan - a former adversary - stranded with him, along with predators from any time period - past, present and future. They realize they must work together, knowing it is the only way they will survive this potentially hostile world until the anomaly leading home re-opens. As the months pass, they discover the truth about each other's past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Chard Layer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [taibhrigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Art for Tarlan's The Chard Layer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1396585) by [taibhrigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh). 



> Written for Small Fandom Big Bang 2013-14  
> Many thanks to **taibhrigh** and **aqualegia** for the amazing beta work, and - AGAIN - to **taibhrigh** for the gorgeous artwork created to accompany this story.
> 
> Also meets **trope_bingo** prompt: huddle for warmth

Evan and Dylan raced back towards the anomaly leading home as the rest of the anomalies at the temporal junction winked out one by one. She was barely two feet in front of him but instead of finding himself racing through the chard layer back into the warehouse, he fell headlong into the shrubs previously hidden behind the anomaly. It was gone. The anomaly had collapsed taking Dylan with it but leaving him behind, stranded in some unknown time period.

Slowly, Evan climbed back to his feet, dusting off his knees while his eyes hunted his surroundings in search of something - anything - until it occurred to him that he could end up in an even worse situation if he did dive through one of the few remaining anomalies. One after the other, they closed too, leaving him in deadly silence until a distant roar from something far too big to be considered a modern day predator, echoed through the valley.

Evan shivered. With all of those open anomalies, creatures from any time period could have come through and ended up trapped here with him wherever... or whenever he was.

Walking around almost in a daze, he spotted Dylan's knife still embedded in the ground just to one side of the dead Albertosaurus, left as a marker to the time period with the bronto-scorpions. The anomaly that had existed behind the dinosaur had led back to Cross Photonics in 2006, and to his dead wife, Brooke, and his friend, Mac. Evan felt a stab of pain at the memory realizing now that all he had accomplished those many years ago when he found Mac in London, was to set Mac on the very path that would eventually lead to his death back in 2006. Except the version of Mac that Evan had kept on ice in that locked room at Cross Photonics had worn an ARC jacket, whereas _his_ Mac had been wearing a Canadian military uniform. A small difference overall, but it was as if the universe had found a way to set itself back on a predetermined path or at least a parallel course.

Rubbing a shaking hand across his mouth, Evan paused for a moment and took first one and then a second deep ragged breath, then another and another, calming his racing heart and overstretched nerves. Looking around, he spotted a weird looking rock and picked it up, placing it along with a few other rocks to form a small pyre to mark the position of the anomaly that had led back to the small town outside of Vancouver in 2012.

Another roar echoed around him, different from the first, but it sounded closer. He knew he couldn't stay where he was as there was not enough protection in this clearing, especially as the creatures would head this way once they picked up the scent of the dead Albertosaurus. 

He headed towards the stream and used several imperfectly placed stones to get across, almost falling when one wobbled beneath his foot but he managed to keep his balance and get across without getting his feet wet. On the other side he paused for a moment, fearful of his surroundings, before moving swiftly up the grassy slope towards the tree line. The soft yips of a smaller, possibly dog-like creature made him pause for a moment before he sped up a little. More yips followed and he realized it was a small pack, perhaps earlier versions of wolves, and they were moving fast. Evan hoped they were scavengers as he would then seem insignificant compared to the huge feast lying on the valley floor by the stream.

He breathed a sigh of relief when they carried on down into the clearing.

A little further up the slope, he heard the break of twigs ahead of him and froze, gun held up in readiness even though he knew he was running low on bullets having almost emptied the magazine into the Albertosaurus. When the figure stepped out, Evan almost dropped the gun in shock.

"Howard?"

The man blinked, forehead creasing as he stepped out of the shadow of the tree. His clothes were ragged beneath a strangely woven cloak, his hair longer, and he looked as if he hadn't shaved in a few days. His eyes had dark circles beneath, as if he rarely slept, though under the circumstances, Evan could understand why that might be the case.

"Evan? Evan Cross?"

Evan huffed out a laugh. "You know of any other Evan who could be here?"

The tension in Howard's lean frame lessened a fraction and Evan saw the beginnings of a smile lifting the corners of his lips.

"Guess not." Another roar had both of them checking around fearfully. "We can't stay here," Howard stated softly. "It's not safe."

Evan nodded tightly and together they headed up the grassy slope and away from where various predators and scavengers were already converging on the carcass of the Albertosaurus.

"Do you know where we are?" Evan asked, "And by that I mean... when."

Howard deflated a little. After a moment he shook his head. "Sometime since the last ice age would be my guess."

"Any particular reason?"

"The plants... trees. I recognize most of them." He pointed to one. "That's a Garry oak... and Douglas Firs. The Douglas Fir has only been around since the mid-Pleistocene, and as this place isn't covered in a glacier that puts it after the last ice age." He cut a quick grin towards Evan. "So any time in the last ten thousand years, though I was kind of hoping..."

He let that thought trail off and Evan realized Howard had likely hoped he had returned to 2012 after seeing Evan here. Howard clambered to the top of the ridge and held out a hand to Evan, which Evan grabbed, allowing Howard to help him up the last steep part of the incline.

"Thanks."

From here they could see for miles, and there was no sign of any towns or settlements, just a forest of Douglas firs that stretched into the distance. The one thing Evan had assumed from his previous trips through anomalies was that each side of the chard layer was in close proximity, geographically speaking. However Connor and the other guy from ARC had come through to this temporal junction from London, England, which was over four and half thousand miles away from Cross Photonics. It meant that they could be anywhere on the planet right now.

"So, do you think we're still in Canada?"

Howard shrugged. "The Garry oaks and Douglas firs put us at least in the north-west of the continent, so... yeah."

Evan conceded that he had a point, not that it helped them any. For all he knew they'd simply been displaced by a few miles rather than by time. They might reach the next ridge and find themselves overlooking the warehouse still surrounded by Colonel Hall's men. A snarling sound came from the left of them so they quickened their pace. Howard stopped suddenly and dove into the shrubs beneath a stand of firs. He came back out.

"In here! Quick!"

Evan followed quickly, ducking to avoid hitting his head on overhanging branches, and then began climbing up the oak tree behind Howard, realizing that this had to be how the other man survived almost two months alone in the Cretaceous period. He should have known Howard would be resourceful.

When Howard first stepped back through that anomaly, taking the prototype anomaly detector with him, Evan had feared him dead - or worse. Dylan had called Howard ' _crazy eyes_ ' because he had seemed insane at the time but now it was obvious that he'd been hopped up on caffeine from those PowerBars and drinks stocked in his workshop, but two months without caffeine had calmed him considerably. This Howard was more like the man Evan recalled from the court sessions five years earlier, when Howard had accused him of stealing his work on Photonics. 

This was the man the world had known before Howard's wife had died of cancer.

He and Howard had both lost loved ones but watching someone die of cancer had to be a lot different than Evan's situation - slow and painful. Brooke's death had been sudden and brutal, and the shock had turned to anger and a determination to discover how some creature from millions of years in the past could have been responsible for her death.

Evan recalled those first few weeks after losing Brooke, and how he could have so easily lost himself to grief if not for Ange. She had stuck by him, offering support, cajoling him into facing each day. For a moment he wondered if there had been anyone there for Howard or if he had simply buried himself alive in his work, turning into that crazy-eyed recluse.

The Howard that Evan recalled from the workshop in his otherwise empty mansion had mumbled about a bright line between then and now. That Howard had been a fractured man, working on his inventions alone, but the sight of a Triceratops had seemed to shock him back into the real world. His imagination had been fired as if he had suddenly found a reason to live - perhaps the same reason that had pulled Evan back from the brink of destruction after Brooke's death. 

Evan had learned more about the anomalies in that short time in Howard's workshop than in the past five years working alone. He hadn't realized that he had isolated himself in just the same way as Howard, though Howard was right about one other thing - it had felt good to speak with someone who actually understood what he was saying. It had felt good to air his theories concerning magnetic fields interacting to form the anomalies. Howard had seen what Evan had missed, that it was a harmonic frequency and the decay rate would determine how long the anomaly could remain open. Howard had even tweaked a resonator in just a few minutes, something that Howard had been working on for over a year, as if Howard was destined to become a part of this.

Howard stopped once they were a good distance off the ground and settled down onto a wide branch with his back to the trunk of the tree, and Evan found a similar spot within arm's reach of Howard. For a while all Evan could hear was their rapid breathing and the slight breeze rustling the leaves around them. He held his breath as a new sound came from below, peering through the cloak of leaves to see several of the dog-like creatures sniffing around the base of the tree. More yips followed, and then the dog creatures leaped away, running down the slope towards the clearing far below.

Evan let out the breath he was holding and looked across at Howard, startled when he found Howard staring right back at him. Howard looked away first, obviously embarrassed at being caught staring, but then looked back with a tight smile.

"The trees worked out safer back in the Cretaceous, as long as I climbed high enough." He relaxed a little when Evan nodded at him to go on. "Safer but not safe," he stressed. "One thing I learned in these past months is that danger comes in many forms and sizes."

Evan nodded again, recalling that time when they were trapped in a cargo plane that had flown through an open anomaly. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of bugs had surrounded them, and he and Dylan had barely made it back without being eaten alive. The memory of that terrifying incident still haunted him, adding to the nightmares that had plagued him since Brooke's death.

"Why did you step through, Howard?"

Howard smiled wryly. "The bright line between then and now. I wanted to cross it. I wanted to touch the edge of space and time... cross the chard layer and see what was on the other side."

"Was it worth it?"

Howard smiled and shrugged. "You were right. It was amazing... and frightening too, but it was the first time I'd felt... _alive_ in so long that..." He closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "Yes. It was worth it, but now I want to go home. I have theories I want to explore. Ideas for improving the anomaly detector. Increasing its range even more than... I have a theory on how to open an anomaly of my choosing... to take me to any time, and any place." He tilted his head and stared at Evan again. "But I don't want to do it alone anymore. I want you to help me. I want you to work with me, Evan. We'd make a great team."

Evan smiled, recalling that short time in Howard's workshop where he had felt more alive than in all the preceding years or the months that followed. Bouncing ideas off Howard had been... amazing, and enlightening. They had been so in tune with each other's thoughts that he had hated to leave, and perhaps that was also why he had felt even more lonely after Howard walked backwards into the anomaly. He'd known Howard - truly known him - for less than an hour, and yet losing him had hurt more than watching Ange walk away. Somehow they had connected on more than just an intellectual level and despite their current predicament, his soul felt lighter for knowing Howard was still alive and with him.

"Sun will be setting soon so we might as well get comfortable for the night," Howard stated softly, wrapping the roughly woven cloak over his thinner frame like a blanket.

"Hold on." Evan swung around until he was on the same thick branch as Howard, squirming his way between Howard and the trunk. "It's going to get colder before long and this way we can share body heat." Evan pulled Howard back against his chest. "Plus you look like you could use a better night's sleep." His voice dropped to almost a whisper. "I can watch over you while you sleep."

The tension in Howard's body slowly eased and Evan knew when he had finally fallen asleep by the way his head lolled back, rolling to settle against Evan's neck and shoulder. Evan simply tightened his hold on Howard, settling the cloak to cover them both. He gave small thanks for the thick foliage above them when it started to drizzle, knowing it kept the worst of the rain off them and smiled when he noticed the water was running right off the cloak, as if it had been rain-proofed. He wouldn't put it past Howard to have figured out a way to do that.

Evan dozed occasionally, only to be woken by strange sounds of unknown animals - yips, barks and low roars, snarls that echoed, and a distant shriek that sounded almost human but was likely some fox-like creature. Sometimes there were scratches at the base of the tree, and on occasion he had to flick away a small lizard like creature, not wanting to trust anything. Each time he awoke he checked on Howard, but found him deeply asleep, and he felt awed by the trust Howard put in him to keep him safe while he slept, especially after their history. Evan had a feeling that it had been a long time since Howard had trusted anyone, either that or he simply was too exhausted after spending months trying to survive in the Cretaceous period.

By the time the sky began to lighten - gray and cold - Evan felt stiff from sitting too long in one position with just the gnarled truck supporting his back. His ass felt numb too, and some of the aches and pains from the rockfall back in what could have been the Silurian period, had made themselves known. He had Dylan and Connor Temple to thank for digging him out before he became a meal for the bronto-scorpion caught inside with him. Adrenaline had kept him going after that, and a need to ensure that nothing altered his past even though that meant Brooke would have to die.

The hard part was not knowing if he had succeeded. The fact that he still existed offered him two theories. One, that nothing had changed and his path had led him to this moment in time, sitting high up in a tree with his former business rival wrapped in his arms. Or two, that he and Howard were standing outside of their timeline, and everything they knew might have changed but they would be the only ones who would ever recall how it had once been. He hoped that wasn't the case even though he had been prepared to die that day with Brooke. Mac had saved him in the past, and Mac had gone through the anomaly to save him again.

"Gives you a headache thinking about it."

Evan straightened, unaware until that moment that Howard was now awake. Although they were not precariously balanced on the thick branch, he made no move to release Howard, waiting for Howard to move first. What surprised him was that Howard remained were he was, still pressed up against Evan's chest and wrapped in his arms. It occurred to Evan that Howard might have denied himself human contact for a long time after his wife's death, but there was a big difference between pushing people away and being totally alone in a hostile world.

Instead of dropping his already loose grip, Evan held him tighter.

"Thinking about what?"

"Time and space. Everett's theory on multiverses and splitting time lines." Howard sighed and changed the subject. "Despite being up a _tree_ , I haven't slept this well in... years."

"Wish I could say the same. I'm missing my comfy bed right about now."

Howard laughed and eased away from Evan. "We need to find food and water... and improve our living accommodations before nightfall." But when Evan began to move Howard stopped him. "Not yet. A lot of predators are crepuscular."

Evan nodded and sank back, recalling that many predators had sharper eyesight for hunting at dusk and dawn, catching their prey unawares. He knew there would be just as much danger during the daylight hours but at least they might be able to see it coming and take action to protect themselves. From the way the sky was slowly lightening, he guessed full sun-up was still half an hour away.

Howard had settled back against him.

"What happened after you stepped back into the Cretaceous?" he asked softly.

"How about we save that story for the long hours between dusk and dawn? And you can tell me how you came to get stuck here with me."

"Sure."

****

As soon as it was light enough, they climbed down from the tree and headed further upstream from where the Albertosaurus would quickly be turning into a pile of gnawed bones. The terrain was different from what Howard recalled of the past three months but the Cretaceous period had been millions of years in the past. He didn't need to be an expert in geology or archeology to visualize how the Earth's crust would have shifted over millions of years - plate tectonics - and how the ocean currents would have changed over time to bring a more temperate climate to the region. Tens of thousands of years ago this whole area would have been covered in a glacier but the ice had receded slowly, and Early Man would have crossed the frozen Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska and moved south.

Unfortunately he couldn't narrow down the time frame without further references, and he couldn't trust any creatures they came across as anomalies had littered the area like confetti thrown at a wedding.

When they reached the stream, Howard pulled several plastic drink bottles from his bag. He'd had the sense to keep hold of the bottles once he finished the original contents, using them to store fresh water.

"One of us should stand guard," he said, giving Evan the choice, and yet he was surprised when Evan took the bottles and began filling them, placing his trust in Howard to keep him safe.

It felt strange being able to focus on his environment rather than splitting his attention between tasks, and it also felt strange to feel so alert after years of broken sleep wearing him down.

"We'll head back to the tree and see if we can fortify it a little more against the elements and other creatures, before nightfall."

"You want to stay here?" Evan glanced around the tree-line valley.

Howard shrugged. "This is obviously a weak spot in the Earth's magnetic field; a temporal junction. If we stay close then another anomaly will open eventually, and maybe that one will lead back home."

Evan sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking much the same thing. I placed a small cairn of stones where one anomaly led back to 2012."

"Good. Good." 

Howard glanced at Evan's bowed head as Evan finished filling the next bottle, but then returned to surveying the surrounding environment. Predators had a habit of staking out water sources, looking for unwary prey. He had learned that lesson the hard way, almost getting snapped up by a pack of small bird-like lizards. They'd chased him quite a distance before he'd managed to climb out of their reach, and he had the scars to prove it. Fortunately, he hadn't taken too many bites but he was sick for days following the attack.

Before Marie was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer they had traveled a lot, and she had been fastidious about them having every conceivable shot for whatever diseases were prevalent in that area. He had accepted it all as an annoyance at the time but had found it better to simply acquiesce rather than fight her on it. He wondered now if he had her to thank for him surviving the infection from the tiny lizard bites, and from other insect bites over the past three months.

Of course it had also helped that he hadn't entered the anomaly completely unprepared that day.

"Howard? You okay?"

Howard remained silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He remembered that day when the silent alarm warned him that someone was right outside his door, on his property without invitation. He'd had visitors before but they were mostly people delivering equipment, or the guy who re-stocked his PowerBars and drinks in the workshop. No one else disturbed him except by email and the occasional video conference when he had to take part in company business, but for the most part, he was left alone.

The last person he had expected to see on his property was Evan Cross.

He had dealt with patent infringements and intellectual property theft on numerous occasions, and had not lost a single case until he went up against Cross Photonics. Twenty months of research and trials, then Cross came out of nowhere and cornered the Photonics market within three months and without performing a single trial. It simply wasn't possible, but Howard had not been able to show the court anything that would prove the work had been stolen from him. The schematics were modified just enough to cast the benefit of doubt in Cross's favor, so he lost the case. He had kept a watch on Evan Cross after that, and five years without another single breakthrough to his name had only strengthened Howard's conviction that Cross had stolen the idea from him somehow. To Howard, Cross's theft was like gravity; he knew it existed, he could feel the effects of it, but he couldn't see it or touch it, and the not knowing had almost driven him insane as he tried to figure out how Cross could have accomplished the theft. He had done extensive background checks on everyone involved in the project right down to the tea boy. Nothing then... but now he had his answer.

It hadn't been stolen from him in the past but from the future, and once Howard knew how it must have happened, the theft no longer mattered. He had needed to see a time portal with his own eyes, needed to touch it, and he had grabbed his toolkit, the emergency medical kit he kept in the workshop, and stuffed it all in a small pack and the pockets of his cargo pants, along with a handful of bars and drinks before following Cross.

It was beautiful.

The chard layer was pulsing and spinning within the electromagnetic fields of two places in space and time colliding, and he desperately wanted to feel it against his skin and see what was on the other side. It didn't matter that the portal - or anomaly as Evan called it - was decaying, and would soon close. Howard had already worked out that it was a specific weakness in the Earth's magnetic field at this exact place that had caused the anomaly to open. All he had to do was stay close and it would re-open when similar conditions were met, and a quick calculation had placed that at close to three months. It was still just a theory but Howard had spent his entire life working with less tenuous theories and turning them into practical applications that were used worldwide.

"Howard?"

He shook his head slightly to shake off the memories and smiled tightly at Evan. "We should head back."

Evan was eying him strangely, as if he wasn't quite certain of Howard's state of mind but, eventually, he nodded. "Sure."

They gathered up several varieties of berries on the way back to the tree and Howard was glad he had managed to snare and dry out strips of meat from a couple of the bird-like lizards the day before the anomaly re-opened in the Cretaceous period. He had enough for the two of them to last several days before they needed to hunt for more food. Three months fending for himself had taught him how to hunt but Howard decided to wait until tomorrow, then he would set a few snares in the hope of catching a small animal that was - hopefully - edible.

When they reached the tree, Evan caught his arm and Howard turned to face him.

"Wouldn't it be better to find a cave to hole up in until...?"

Howard thought it over for a moment, recalling the large arthropods that had infested the cave he had tried to use as a shelter on that first night in the Cretaceous. One centipede had been as long as his arm, and he'd barely escaped its poisonous claws.

"I guess it _might_ work out better in this time period," he replied, but Howard wasn't convinced. "We can start looking tomorrow. Radiate out from the tree until we find some place suitable. Until then, we need to make _this_ place as safe as possible."

Something must have shown on his face because Evan didn't argue.

"A few creature comforts... like a roof to keep out the rain," Evan stated. "Maybe something softer to lean back against."

Howard gave a lopsided smile, recalling how Evan had become that soft pillow for him last night. He meant what he had said to Evan earlier; last night had been the best sleep he'd had in years. When Marie fell ill, he had slept lightly, waking often to check on her and to see to her needs. After she died he had found it hard to sleep at all, sometimes simply working until he dropped into an exhausted sleep but he'd wake after only a few short hours, still exhausted but determined to get back to work. Back in the Cretaceous period, he no longer had caffeine to keep him awake, and the nights had been long, but he'd never felt safe enough to close his eyes for more than an hour at a time, waking up with every snap of twig or distant call of some prehistoric animal.

Last night he had slept almost ten hours without waking; up a tree, surrounded by creatures from any time period, and in a relative stranger's arms. He still felt the years of exhaustion dragging at him but nowhere near as fiercely as before. Perhaps spending the last few months as the only human on the planet had made him appreciate having another person to talk to, and to lean on. Someone to trust. That this was someone who spoke the same language as him - of mathematics, science and technology - was even more amazing.

Howard had always preferred to work alone for good reason, mostly because he'd rarely found anyone who could keep up with him. Here and now, as they took turns on the mundane task of weaving a rudimentary cover and walls, Howard felt strangely peaceful. Evan was surprisingly easy to get along with, and good with his hands.

A rustle and snap of twigs had Howard's head whipping round, and he froze, feeling the silence hanging heavy around them. Evan had been on guard, watching over him while he took his turn at fixing the second panel, and now he was silent and still, on full alert.

"Howard," he whispered. "Get to the tree now. Slowly."

Very slowly, Howard stood up and stepped backwards until he had the trunk of the tree at his back, with Evan just a few paces in front of him, the gun raised. Another soft growl came from behind the tree, warning Howard that this predator wasn't hunting alone.

"I'm going to count to three. On three, you hightail it up that tree as fast as you can because I'm going to be right on your heels," Evan warned softly. "One. Two. THREE!"

Howard grabbed the first branch as was scrambling up instantly. He could feel the vibration of Evan on the lower branches moving just as fast. Below them the soft growls had turned to sharp barks and strange whoops but Howard didn't stop moving until he reached the place where they had slept that previous night. Evan was beside him moments later and they both looked down as three large lizard-dinosaurs that looked like velociraptors tried leaping for the lower branches, falling back when they couldn't climb the same way as Howard and Evan.

"Thank evolution for opposable thumbs," Howard stated softly, and Evan snorted a laugh.

Fortunately for them the wicked claws on the large velociraptor creatures were meant for tearing flesh rather than climbing. Howard cursed as he watched one of the velociraptors tear into the panel that Howard had half-finished, ripping it to pieces.

"Better that than us," Evan stated solemnly.

The last hours of the day passed slowly as the velociraptors circled the tree, and by the time they gave up and moved off to find more easily available prey, it was dusk. Climbing back down now would be dangerous, especially as they already had most of what they needed to survive the night with them.

Howard watched as Evan sank back down with his back resting on the black TAC vest, using it as a pillow. He held out a hand to Howard, who was balancing further along the thick branch.

"Might as well get comfortable because I don't think we'll be moving until sunrise."

Back in the Cretaceous, Howard had needed to use vines to make sure he was safe when he fell asleep up in a tree. Fortunately, the branch here was easily wide enough nearer the trunk to sit back without any fear of falling.

Howard felt a little guilty as he walked back the few steps and carefully settled back down in front of Evan, He felt the strong arms go round his waist, drawing him back against Evan's chest. They had secured the roof over their heads earlier in the day; and as the last of the light disappeared, it started to rain.

Evan's voice was soft and his breath warm against Howard's ear. "So tell me about the Cretaceous period."

****

The first week passed slowly but after a month the days began to merge together. Evan thought it was Spring when they stepped out into this time period but when the Garry oak's leaves began to turn golden, he knew he'd been mistaken. It was Fall, and soon the oak would shed its leaves, leaving them with less protection from both predators and the elements. Already he could feel a bite to the wind and he had a feeling that the ice age had not long passed, leaving the winter's bitterly cold.

"If our calculations are correct then we have at least another two months before an anomaly will open, and there's no guarantee it will lead back to home. We can't stay _here_ that long." Evan swept his arm around to encompass their tree home.

Howard looked sick at the prospect of leaving.

"I really don't like caves," he stressed.

From his earlier reluctance to even look for a cave, Evan had thought Howard was claustrophobic, until he told Evan about that first night in the Cretaceous and the giant poisonous centipedes that came out of the cave walls. Evan still had his own fears after being trapped in the rockfall with the bronto-scorpion.

"I know, but we really have no choice, Howard. We'll freeze to death out here if it snows."

The cave they found a few days later was barely more than a deep recess below the ridge, and they had stumbled upon it by accident when Howard slipped and fell down the slope a few feet. Evan couldn't see how far it went back until Howard pulled out a small bundle of tightly matted straw, grabbed a branch about an inch thick and a foot long, and proceeded to make an old-fashioned torch. Evan was impressed when the small bundle caught alight instantly and cast a glow around them, giving them enough light to check further back to ensure the cave was truly empty, so relatively safe. He frowned when Howard stuck the torch upright into the earth to illuminate the cave, and began to gather up some of the debris littered across the ground, wondering what Howard was up to. It became clear moments later when the twigs and leaves were piled carefully beneath a hole that could act as a natural chimney; Howard lit the pile quickly.

Hunching down, Evan rubbed his hands together before holding his palms out to catch the warmth from the small fire, trying to ease the chill from his bones.

"We should gather more wood. Stockpile it so it has time to dry out," he murmured tiredly as Howard dropped down beside him.

Last night they had slept high up in a different tree, one of the Douglas firs, with little shelter from the rain and cold. Their previous _home_ was a wreck now, torn to shreds by the strange creature that had attacked them. It was swift and agile, climbing easily, with sharp claws and teeth, and it was like nothing either of them had ever seen before in any book or documentary. Evan was convinced it was blind, like a bat, because its eyes were so tiny, hunting possibly by sonar or heat signatures, and it was just pure luck that he managed to impale the creature as it leapt for him. He and Howard had clambered down from the tree and run as fast as they could, terrified that there could be more of the creatures on their heels but, thankfully, it must have been hunting alone.

That didn't mean there wasn't more of its kind out there.

They'd spent the night cold and miserable on separate branches, not even able to share body warmth. Evan had never been so glad to see the sun rise in the morning even though the rain never let up, and they had picked their way back to the oak carefully, finding only a stain of blood from where the predator had been struck. Evan knew he had killed it so something else must have carried away the carcass. They had salvaged what they could from their meager possessions but they both knew it wasn't safe to remain at the oak any longer.

It was fortunate that they had stumbled across the cave just past midday after Howard slipped on the waterlogged ground. It had given them time to make some preparations for the coming night, especially as both of them were still on edge following the attack the night before, and jumping at every shadow. Howard stood rigidly on guard as Evan used the stone ax he had made weeks earlier to hack down some of the thicker branches of a nearby oak; the oak would burn cleaner than pine. He had already gathered plenty of smaller kindling and moss after placing stones around three-sides of Howard's small fire, with a higher back to reflect the light and heat. When he caught Howard staring between him and the fire pit, he shrugged.

"Lazy Man's fire." When Howard just looked even more confused he added, "Boy Scout. I earned my Camper Activity Badge."

Howard grinned, and it was the first smile he'd seen in days. He liked it when Howard smiled as it made the whole world seem warmer and far less terrifying. It gave him hope that they could survive this ordeal.

They dragged heavier, fallen branches and thick foliage from the pine trees over the uneven ground, using them to barricade the small entrance, yet made certain they could still push it aside quickly from the inside if they needed to escape. It wasn't perfect but it was the best they could manage in the few hours before the sun set on another day. They even found some dry foliage that would insulate them from the cold, hard ground.

The small cave warmed up quickly and Evan decided to risk pulling off his damp t-shirt and pants after fashioning a small frame out of branches.

"You should get out of your damp clothes too, before you catch a chill."

Howard nodded and stripped quickly down to his once-white t-shirt and hanging his jacket, shirt and cargo pants alongside Evan's. After a moments hesitation, he stripped off the t-shirt as well, revealing scars that couldn't be more than a few months old.

"Howard?"

Howard sat down and drew his knees up to his chest and stared into the fire. "Little chicken-sized lizards that hunt in packs." Howard cast a quick glance at Evan. "You don't want to get caught out in the open by a pack." 

He flinched slightly when Evan traced one scar with his fingertips, but otherwise made no attempt to move away from Evan's touch. If anything, he leaned in a little closer.

"There's a reason I stayed high in the trees," he added, turning his head and smiling wryly. "They couldn't climb."

"You never did tell me what happened that last day in the Cretaceous."

Howard grew silent, the smile dropping from his face, and his voice was a hoarse whisper as he replied, "I think you already know."

Evan nodded because the one thing he and Howard shared was high intelligence. The Albertosaurus that killed Brooke in 2006 had come from the Cretaceous... and also from _here_.

"Tell me what happened," he replied just as softly, and he leaned back, watching Howard intently as the story unfolded.

****

Howard sighed heavily and picked up a thin stick, poking the fire with it. It sent embers sparkling into the air, and he was momentarily mesmerized by the sight.

"I was a fool. When I stepped through the anomaly that day, all I had was some basic provisions and a rough calculation that the anomaly would re-open again in under three months. And even that was just a theory."

"Rough calculation?"

"The harmonics. I noticed a second pattern that was building rather than decaying. The resonator I tweaked seemed to confirm it, but there was no time to sit around trying to prove it mathematically." He gave a self-derisive laugh. "I had this idea in my head that I'd make a temporary home in a cave with running water, or build an elaborate tree house, and live off the land in some pre-historic paradise. I assumed I would spend my days working on the math, writing it on the cave walls if necessary like some modern-day caveman. I figured if humans could survive in caves for thousands of years before the advent of ' _civilization_ ', then I'd have no problem surviving three months with all my brains at my disposal."

He sighed, thinking about his beautiful home and the purpose built workshop where he used to spend all the hours of the day working on his designs; too caught up in the math to realize he was lonely and lost.

"Living in my ivory tower... I'd lost sight of reality."

Evan nodded, and Howard wondered if he was remembering the caffeine-high man he had met that day. Howard recalled the worried and slightly horrified look on Evan's face, as if he thought Howard had slipped over the razor thin line between genius and insanity. Looking back, Howard knew he'd been straddling that line since Marie's death. He hadn't allowed anyone else close to him, and he'd started to live only for his work.

"It was beautiful there. The air was so clean; the night sky so crystal clear that you could see... forever. I ended up spending the nights hiding high in a tree making notes on my PDA... solar powered, thankfully! I barely slept... just enough to keep my wits about me during the day when I needed to find food and water."

He noticed Evan had edged closer to him as he spoke. He could feel the extra warmth at his side. Evan leaned forward to add more kindling to the small fire, waiting patiently for Howard to continue.

"I needed to stay close to where the anomaly had opened as it was a weak spot in the Earth's magnetic field. By then I'd figured out the math for determining when it would open... and I was right."

"What happened?"

Howard wrapped his arms around himself as he recalled that day just under two months earlier. It had been the height of summer - hot and humid - and a herd of around thirty Edmontosaurus were moving through the Cretaceous forest beneath his tree, tearing at ferns or crunching on conifer branches and low hanging foliage. They were an amazing sight and as docile as any modern herd animal... until they sensed danger. When the anomaly detector had given off a warning chime, the dinosaurs had gone still. Howard had checked, relieved when the display read that the anomaly would remain open for hours yet, so he remained where he was and watched them, not wanting to take any unnecessary risks.

The Albertosaurus must have been stalking the herd. He'd seen it before from a distance, chasing down a herd of Triceratops, recognizable by its withered arm, and on that day it had come so close that it shook the tree in which Howard was hiding as it past beneath. He knew it could smell him but was probably unsure of what he was at that time, having never scented a human before, and eventually the Albertosaurus gave up, deciding to go after its normal prey. Over time though, it came back more often, circling beneath Howard's tree and smacking his enormous head against the trunk, making the tree shake as Howard clung on for dear life.

He related all this to Evan.

"I recognized the Albertosaurus as the same one as before by its damaged arm. The previous time, it had staked out the tree - and me - for three whole days before something stumbled upon it and became its next meal." He gave a harsh laugh. "Three days... and I had less than a day before the anomaly closed, and I'd already worked out that it wouldn't open again in that spot for another fourteen years."

He shrugged.

"I had to take the chance and make a run for it... and it followed me through." He laughed bitterly again. "Except here wasn't home. It wasn't the same anomaly that had taken me to the Cretaceous. The Albertosaurus missed me by a matter of inches. I smelled its fetid breath as its teeth snapped at me. I kept running, falling and when I saw another anomaly ahead of me, I leapt to one side, and it went running through to... I guess to 2006."

By now Evan was pressed up against him, and Howard felt a hand go round his shoulder, drawing him against Evan's body.

"No. It ended up in London at some time around 2012 to 2014, and was chased back here by an... ARC team."

"ARC?"

"Anomaly Research Center. They'd been monitoring the anomalies in England for years apparently. Not surprised... just unexpected. They had the same policy as me... to send the creatures back to where they belonged, but they never expected to find a temporal junction. The Albertosaurus chased an ARC soldier into my 2006, and we... a couple of ARC guys, Dylan, who you met that day, and me... We chased it back out."

"Then your wife-?"

Howard felt rather than saw Evan shake his head. "Back in our time, Colonel Hall of the Canadian Army, had it tranquillized and taken back to 2012. It got loose and we herded it back through the anomaly... and it ended up back in 2006. I remember that day. The shock of this prehistoric dinosaur snapping up Brooke... and it running right at me. I was frozen. I'd just seen it kill Brooke and.... suddenly someone was barreling into me from behind, knocking me aside. Mac saving my life just as he had back on that day in 2006. Except he was a stranger to me in 2006."

This time it was Howard who waited for Evan to continue.

"When the Albertosaurus came hurtling back out here from 2006, I shot at it until it fell dead... and all the anomalies began to collapse. Dylan and I started running and I was only a pace or two behind her. She made it... and I didn't. But we'd changed something big, affected something. I could feel it."

"You don't know that for sure." Howard relaxed against Evan's tense body.

"No, I don't. I just... felt something, and I don't think it was just the change in Mac's uniform."

Howard didn't know what that meant exactly but he had felt no different, and if Evan or the others had radically changed something then surely it would have affected him as well. He decided to try to put Evan's mind at ease.

"Evan, the timer on the anomalies had them _all_ collapsing when they did," he stressed. " _All of them_ were at the same weak spot in the Earth's magnetic field, and obviously open at the same moment in time. Here and now. Minute fluctuations in the field within this area meant they didn't close at the exact same second but... but the countdown had already started."

They sat in silence for a long time, simply holding onto each other as they watched the flickering flames. Howard felt at peace, knowing he'd been just part of a chain of events that had led to Evan losing his wife rather than the sole cause. He still felt some of the guilt on his shoulders but it didn't sit so heavily now.

Still tired from the terrifying night before, he was starting to doze a little when he felt Evan's hand cup his cheek and turn his face towards him. The soft, dry lips pressing against his own felt weird and he knew he ought to pull back and ask Evan what the hell he was playing at but the warmth against his mouth seemed to flood through his entire body, pooling in his belly and groin. He shivered, but not from the cold as the small cave had warmed considerably. He waited for Evan to pull back a fraction.

"Evan?"

"Sshh. Don't..."

When Evan leaned in to brush his lips against Howard's again, the need to touch and be touched opened like a floodgate, and he felt himself drowning in the desire for more; twisting his body and burying his hands in Evan's dark hair as he deepened the kiss. He felt the vibration of Evan's needy moan like a shockwave riding through him, and held on tighter still.

A sense of falling ended when he felt the soft ferns of their makeshift bed beneath him, while Evan's body covered him from above. A hand skimmed his side from his shoulder to the waistband of his boxers, fingers slipping beneath the material until Evan's palm was cupping one ass cheek. Howard moaned in pleasure as Evan pressed closer still, feeling the hot mouth and warm breath pressing kisses against his throat and lower. Cooler air rushed in as Evan lifted away a fraction, balanced on his knees and one forearm, his face only inches away as he looked down into Howard's eyes. His blue eyes were questioning, and Howard answered by dragging his own boxers down before arching up to kiss Evan. The feel of his sensitive cock against the stiff cotton of Evan's underwear was electric but Howard wanted to feel skin on skin. He stroked his hands down Evan's sides, taking hold of the waistband and drawing Evan's boxers down, carefully freeing his hard cock. Howard squeezed closed his eyes and gasped harshly as Evan's hand closed around both of them, rocking his hips in time with Evan's, the touch too long denied for him to last. He muffled his cry against Evan's shoulder, tasting the salty sweat of his skin as he came hard. Evan followed a few strokes later and collapsed to one side, one heavy arm draped over Howard's heaving body and his sweat-dampened hair against Howard's cheek. He was breathing just as hard and Howard focused on those breaths, slowly his rapid heartbeat as Evan's breathing evened out.

He felt lethargic now, with sex and the exhaustion from the previous night pulling him down. Part of him felt he ought to explain that he'd never done that before... with another guy. He'd thought about it back in his college days, before Marie had walked into his life and blown his mind with her theories on imaging technology. He had turned her ideas into reality, and she had turned his world on its head.

No one else had come close to having that same impact on him until Evan Cross trespassed onto his property chasing time anomalies and dinosaurs.

Evan's breathing had slowed further, easing into sleep, and though Howard knew one of them ought to stay awake, his own eyes drifted shut too as he fell asleep.

****

Evan shivered at the cold along one side of him and snuggled into the heat of the body pressed close. Memories of last night came back and he awoke abruptly, realizing they had both fallen asleep afterwards. The small fire had died to glowing embers and he moved carefully, not wanting to disturb Howard. Within a few minutes he had the fire warming the cave again and he turned his attention back to Howard, who still slept on.

The expected freak out didn't happen, and he felt surprisingly guilt and anxiety free as he looked down at the slumbering man.

That one time he had slept with Ange had felt the exact opposite, even though he had denied it even to himself at the time. Almost like a betrayal of Brooke, which was hardly surprising as Brooke hadn't liked Ange very much. She would have approved of Howard though. She would have seen the same fire and enthusiasm for science and Math that drove Evan, and the same vulnerabilities too.

Gently, he settled back down beside Howard and let his thoughts drift, smiling when Howard rolled over in his sleep, seeking out the warmth of Evan's body.

After that, their days and nights fell into a new pattern as they found comfort with each other, in every sense of the word.

****

The bitterly cold winds swept down from the north turning their world to ice and snow and they were forced to lean heavily into their meager supply of dried salted meat that they'd built up before the winter snows came. The berries and fruits were gone, though they did discover a tasteless but at least edible root vegetable that bulked out the weak, salty stew.

According to the anomaly detector, the conditions were almost perfect and they spent the long dark days huddled together in the warmth and relative security of their small cave while they waited for the first one to open. Their physical relationship had intensified since that first kiss and when they weren't postulating theories or creating the math to prove those theories, they were locked in each other's embrace, finding comfort and pleasure with each other.

It was as near to perfect as either could wish, considering they were thousands of years from home and surrounded by dangerous predators from any time period. Howard suspected that most of those predators, and the prey they hunted, had headed south to warmer climates but neither he nor Evan were willing to bet their lives on it so they still took care beyond the walls of their cave.

Howard winced as he sat up, feeling a deep twinge in certain muscles.

Last night they had taken the physical side of their relationship a step further, and he ached in a place he had never expected to ache, but instead of focusing on the discomfort, he recalled the pleasure of Evan pushing inside him. It had been the most intense sensation and he had never felt more vulnerable - or more loved - than in that moment when, fully seated, Evan had paused above him. Desire-darkened eyes had revealed what words could never truly say, that he _was_ loved beyond even a shadow of doubt. It felt humbling and freeing, his heart soaring as they moved together, feeling the exquisite sensations sending pleasure dancing through his whole body as Evan fucked him deep, and yet with so much tenderness and love.

"You okay?"

Howard nodded, he opened his mouth to reassure Evan when the beep sounded. Both of them looked at the anomaly detector and then back at each other.

"Evan?"

Evan snatched up the handset that was lying only a few feet from him and checked the readings while Howard dropped to his knees beside him.

"An anomaly opened. Decay rate gives us fourteen hours."

"We need to check it out. See where it leads."

He snatched up one of the wooden spears he and Evan had fashioned for protection and they both dressed as warmly as possible before heading out. The world outside was crisp and clear though they knew it wouldn't last that way. By nightfall it would be snowing again, and the slowly strengthening winds coming from the north-west could from a blizzard. They couldn't afford to get caught out in a snowstorm, which limited the time they could spend checking this anomaly.

"This way," Evan stated, and Howard followed a few steps behind, far enough away to watch their surroundings for predators.

The anomaly was situated partway up the hillside overlooking the clearing where the Albertosaurus had been reduced to bones protruding from the snow. Howard recognized it as the place where he had come running out of the Cretaceous with the Albertosaurus right behind him. He had raced down the hill, diving to one side and rolling back to his feet, zagging first left then right, and darting aside as the Albertosaurus - being less maneuverable - had skidded straight through a second anomaly; London sometime between 2012 and 2014, according to Evan.

Howard had tried several of the other anomalies, looking for a way home, and had almost died in the toxic atmosphere of one time period, struggling back across the chard layer before losing consciousness. Luckily, nothing had grabbed him while he was out cold but he had awoken to the sound of whooshing noises as the anomalies around him began closing one by one in quick succession. The rest was more recent history - finding Evan stuck with him in this wherever or whenever world.

"Howard?"

"That's where I came out from the Cretaceous. I didn't realize until too late that it wasn't the same anomaly that took me there from 2012. That one probably opened a day or two later."

"But by then you were here," Evan finished.

A whoosh sounded from close by, and the anomaly detector gave another beep. Howard stared hard at Evan and together they looked round, finally seeing another chard layer glinting like broken glass spinning freely in the air. Another whoosh heralded the opening of yet another anomaly, and then another. Evan grabbed Howard's arm and dragged him down the hill through the deep snow. Crossing the stream was difficult as the stones were covered in ice and snow, and Howard almost slipped, caught at the last moment by Evan and pulled to the safety of the other bank. They trudged to the center of the clearing beside the bones of the Albertosaurus, and they waited.

"2006," Evan stated, and looked longingly at it even though several months would have passed since that fateful day when Brooke died. "I bought the building but I went searching for the stranger who died saving my life that day: Mac. I was in London, England." He looked across the clearing and pointed. "My 2012 in Canada was there."

"Then we wait and see if it opens back up." Howard tilted his head towards 2006, "And we call that Plan B... just in case."

Evan nodded, agreeing because they both knew that any creature could appear through one of these anomalies at any time, and 2006 was better than ending up in the Silurian or Cretaceous period if they needed to make a run for it.

A thought struck Howard and he frowned, staring hard at Evan.

"How did you solve the problem with Photonics?"

"What?" Evan looked confused by the sudden shift in topic.

He repeated the question. "How did you solve the problem, Evan?"

"I-I found a scribbled note in my own handwriting and a prototype at the base of the freezer holding Mac's..." 

Evan went wide-eyed as he looked across at the resonator attached to the anomaly detector in Howard's hand; the resonator Howard had spent a year perfecting before realizing he could use it to calculate the decay rate of the harmonic frequency. Evan watched in shock as Howard pulled apart the resonator to remove one vital component, because they both knew the resonator device worked using Photonics technology.

"Howard?"

"Let's go leave your note, Evan."

2006 was empty and silent and Howard noticed Evan's hands shaking as he wrote the scrawled note, knowing it was not from the cold of that other place in time. His blue eyes were shining with unshed tears as he watched Howard place the ' _prototype_ ' on top of the note. As Howard turned away to go back through the anomaly, Evan caught his arm and pulled him back around, cupping his face and leaning in to kiss him with almost overwhelming tenderness.

"Thank you," he whispered when they finally pulled back. "Thank you."

Howard grinned. "At least now I know how you figured out Photonics in just three months, and without a single test."

Returning to the temporal junction, they noticed that other anomalies had opened, including the one leading back to Evan's 2012. Snow had covered the small cairn of stones that Evan had left as a place marker, but Howard knew from Evan's expression that it was definitely the right portal home. As he stepped towards it, aware that everything might change between them, he was surprised when Evan grabbed his arm again.

"Howard, I lo... want you. And the only way I'm giving up what we have together... is if you say you don't want me."

Just one look in Evan's eyes proved he meant every word, and it took Howard a couple of tries before he could speak.

"I want you." He cleared his throat. "I want us."

Evan smiled. "Then let's go home."

He held out his hand and Howard grabbed it, ready to face whatever future lay beyond the anomaly as long as they were together.

Side-by-side they walked through the chard layer, letting it dance against their skin as they stepped from the bitter cold of an early post-Ice Age world into a warehouse on the edge of a small town outside Vancouver. It was a warm summer's day, and Howard saw Evan smile when they found Dylan, Toby... and Mac waiting for them on the other side.

END

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art for Tarlan's The Chard Layer](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1396585) by [taibhrigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh)




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